remote work

The 777 Tower in downtown Los Angeles' financial district is one of two buildings that Brookfield, the city's largest office owner, defaulted on this year. Arezou Rezvani/NPR hide caption

Cobbler James Wallace Sears has spent decades fixing the shoes of lawyers, consultants and financial advisers who work in nearby corporate towers. With so many of them still working from home, he's not sure his business will survive. Arezou Rezvani/NPR hide caption

Carrie Kissell spent nearly three months on a sailboat after Airbnb told her she could live and work anywhere. "When the workday was over, I'd close my laptop and you know, go snorkeling," she says. Carrie Kissell hide caption

The amount of time people spend in meetings tripled in the pandemic, Microsoft found in one study. Now, companies are looking at ways to cut back. woojpn/Getty Images hide caption

A new Gallup report finds employee engagement in need of a rebound, finding only 32% of U.S. workers to be engaged with their work. Malte Mueller/Getty Images/fStop hide caption

Just before turning 55, Dean Hebert retired from his job at the University of Maryland after realizing he had plenty of savings to support himself in retirement. Andrea Hsu/NPR hide caption

Nitin Budhiraja discovered during the pandemic that he loved working from home. He now works fully remotely. Nitin Budhiraja hide caption

People walk by a subway stop in midtown Manhattan in New York City on April 13. Some of the city's top CEOs say they are being told by their employees that they are afraid to return to work after a recent spate of high-profile attacks. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

Brandie Diamond describes herself as a "transgender truck driver/chef/Jill-of-all-trades." But her career in trucking began in the mid-1980s, and she hadn't come out as trans back then. Meg Vogel for NPR hide caption

Brandie Diamond stands by her FedEx Custom Critical truck in a Walmart Supercenter parking lot in Columbus, Ohio. Meg Vogel for NPR hide caption